The Mad Men GQ+A: Teyonah Parris on Don's Dawn's Breakthrough Episode

It has become abundantly clear that Dawn Chambers (Teyonah Parris) is different from everyone else at Sterling Cooper Draper Pryce—not because she’s black, but because she’s honest. On Sunday night’s Mad Men, we saw Don Draper’s secretary plunged into deep internal conflict over the simple deception of punching a friend’s time card. Back home in Harlem, she was even more forthright, telling her bride-to-be best friend that she had more important things to think about than her wedding. Honesty notwithstanding, the firm’s first African-American hire seems as intent on reinventing herself as any other character. The difference is that Dawn has no illusions about blending in, which gives her a clear-eyed anthropologist’s view of Madison Avenue. "Everybody’s scared there," she remarks. Will this season see the corruption of Dawn Chambers? Will her fate be determined by the constant, insidious racism that surrounds her? Or will she find a way to rise through the ranks without losing herself along the way? Parris called GQ from London to talk about her breakthrough episode.

GQ: Dawn appeared for only a moment in the season premiere, but her whole demeanor was radically different from the last time we’d seen her.

** Teyonah Parris: **Last time we saw her, I would venture to say it was her first time as the sole African-American in a workplace—because she’s fairly young, just coming out of school. So it was a first for Dawn in many ways. Now a year’s gone by, she’s been in this environment, and she’s very good at what she does. She has a relationship with her boss and the other women in her office, as we got to see in this last episode. So she’s definitely just more comfortable in the environment—as comfortable as she can be.

GQ: It seems like she shares that zealous commitment to work that Don and many of his employees have.

** Teyonah Parris: ** Oh, most definitely.

GQ: In last night’s episode, the audience learned a lot about Dawn. What were the big revelations for you?

** Teyonah Parris: ** She’s doing very well adapting to the environment and making friends. Those girls clock out for one another all the time. That’s not something new, that’s not this big thing. But to get caught, and to see Joan just turn around and fire someone just like that—when you get kind of comfortable in your environment, and then someone comes and snaps you right out of it. For me, it was a flash of the Dawn from last season: Oh, shit, I am in big trouble. And she needs that job! It’s not something she’s just doing for fun. That job helps her mom, and her brother, and her family. That was very much a wake-up call. And then we get to follow her uptown, where she’s talking to her friend, who’s saying, "Those girls aren’t your friends." But she wants them to be, and she believes that they are. For Dawn, it’s almost a whole different world when you go downtown. And to live in that world simultaneously with your own back home--to the people who don’t have those jobs and stay in the black community, you seem like a sell-out in a way. It’s hard to explain what that relationship is. It was just very interesting to see Dawn share trying to share that with her best friend.

GQ: And she doesn’t quite get it.

** Teyonah Parris: ** Right, and all of that is happening while her best friend is going through one of the biggest times in her own life, getting married. At the same time, Dawn wants what her friend has, you know? So we’re seeing the beginning of Dawn wanting the career, wanting the family, wanting the respect—but you’re only going to get so much of that being a) black and b) a woman. So it was very exciting and fun to watch her explore that.

GQ: The best friend said that Dawn was naïve to think that her co-workers are her friends. Do you agree?

** Teyonah Parris: ** You know how you have work friends and you have real-life friends? Would these girls come uptown and hang out with Dawn? I don’t think so. I really don’t. Would Dawn want them to? I don’t think so, either. Could they go have a cup of coffee on break, and do they go through some of the same experiences being women in this male-dominated world? Definitely. So it just depends on what you would classify as a "friend." I do think Dawn feels like these women are her friends. But I, Teyonah the actress, am making a discernment in saying I don’t think they’re her friends like Nikki, her friend in the diner. I wouldn’t say she’s fooling herself, but I think she sees the good in people.

GQ: At this point in time, I’m feeling like Dawn is the only honest person in the entire office.

GQ: I don’t know if that will change, but it’s an interesting element to throw into the mix. She’s perceptive, too; that observation about everyone at the office being scared was quite astute.

** Teyonah Parris: ** I do think that because she has whole other set of rules on top of the rules that the women in the office have to follow—being black, not making a fuss and staying under the radar—she’s able to see everything that happens from an objective point of view. She has no real ties to anybody, and she’s Don’s right-hand woman, so all his calls go through her. She sees everything in the office. And yeah, she can make those kinds of judgments, and we as the audience believe her.

GQ: Joan is the person in the office whom Dawn seems to admire—and fear—the most. Why is that?

** Teyonah Parris: ** I think that Dawn looks at Joan as a woman who is now a partner at a Madison Avenue advertising firm. Like, who does that? I think there’s a high level of respect for her, and Dawn would love to be that woman who can command that kind of respect, and get that far. I don’t know that Dawn knows how Joan did it—but she did it, and she’s there, and she’s beautiful, and these men, as far as Dawn can see, respect her. They move when she says "move." For her, as a woman, watching what Joan has been able to do in the last year is amazing.

GQ: The clothes on this show tell a story. What’s your impression of Dawn’s wardrobe this year?

** Teyonah Parris: ** I do feel like our clothes on this show also speak to how our characters are growing, or staying the same. Dawn has always been in those long knee-length skirts, and the pleats, and the ruffles. And she doesn’t wear much jewelry; it’s usually just earrings. This season, though, she started wearing blazers. So it’s those little things that I pay attention to that help me inform my character. I’m like, "Oh, we have a blazer today. Alrighty!"

** Teyonah Parris: ** Thank you! Yeah, no, that’s not Dawn. That’s not Dawn at all. Dawn is very much covered up and, "Don’t look at me, don’t look at my body, don’t look at anything—I’m here to do a good job." I like that about her.

GQ: By any chance, have you seen the Mad Men script that’s been circulating around the Internet recently? A writer named Erika Alexander wrote it, to explore how Mad Men could include more black characters.

** Teyonah Parris: ** No, I haven’t.

GQ: I won’t ask for your opinion on the Dawn scene, then.

** Teyonah Parris: ** I’m going to look for it.

GQ: Going off Mad Men for a moment, I noticed you’re in the new David Wain movie with Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler.

** Teyonah Parris: ** Yes, that’s going to be crazy! It’s a spoof. We just finished shooting it. That’s going to be very different from Dawn. Very, very.